Alex De Minaur reached his first Masters 1000 final when he beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1 6-3 at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
De Minaur played very well this well this week beating Taylor Fritz and Danil Medvedev en route to reaching his first Masters 1000 semifinal. Last week the Australian player finished runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Los Cabos final.
Davidovich Fokina beat Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Mackenzie McDonald en route to his second Masters 1000 semifinal. The Spanish player reached the fourth round at the US Open for the second time in 2022.
Davidovich Fokina missed a game point in the second game and dropped serve after a loose forehand. De Minaur held serve at 15 with a service winner in the third game to race out to a 3-0 lead after 12 minutes. Davidovich Fokina held at love with a forehand winner in the fourth game.
De Minaur saved two break points in the fifth game and held serve to open up a 4-1 lead. The Australian player earned his second break in the sixth game after a loose forehand from Davidovich Fokina to race out to a 5-1 lead.
De Minaur served out the first set 6-1 with an ace in 30 minutes.
The second set was marked by eight breaks of serve and seven in a row. Davidovich Fokina broke three times, but De Minaur earned five breaks in a row.
De Minaur broke serve in the first game and saved two break points in the second game to build up a 6-1 2-0 lead. Both players traded breaks in the next seven games. Davidovich Fokina closed the gap to 3-5 before De Minaur closed out the match with his final break in the ninth game.
“It was a very tough day. The conditions were very tricky. It was very windy. It was not very easy to play tennis. From the very first point I just told myself to stay positive. I was going to try and win every point, try to be solid and not expect perfect tennis”, said De Minaur.
